I would like to begin by saying that these are just my own thoughts on the subject. It is neither the only nor necessarily the right view.
Global warming and the associated climate neutrality are currently very important political issues. More and more CO2 neutrality agreements are being concluded, renewable energy is constantly being expanded and everyone is taught a climate-friendly and conscious lifestyle.
On the other hand, interest in the crypto world and individual cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, is growing. But what is often not known or overlooked is that mining these cryptocurrencies requires enormous computing power, which consumes an extremely high amount of power.
According to recent studies, the annual electricity consumption in crypto mining is estimated at about 120 TWh, according to the study of the “Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index. ” That’s roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of all of Pakistan. In 2018, a Bitcoin transaction had the same energy footprint as 80,000 credit card transactions – by now it is likely to be significantly more.
Meanwhile, individual states such as China and Sweden are taking action against the exsessive mining of cryptocurrencies. There was immigration to Sweden in particular, only because of crypto mining, because of the low electricity costs compared to the standard of living in Europe.
But what does this development mean for the crypto world? These currencies cannot exist without mining.
Crypto advocates argue that cryptocurrencies replace existing forms of payment that also use electricity. But until that happens, the two systems will run parallel to each other for a long time to come.
On the one hand, the crypto hype could encourage more investors and also big winners to invest money in technologies for climate-neutral energy generation. On the other hand, states, which for the most part have a negative attitude towards the crypto world, could also restrict it to the point of collapse.
What are your thoughts about that topic?
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Have a nice day!
eragon
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Credits: https://www.dw.com/de/energie-stromverbrauch-bitcoin-mining/a-56589030